. >> erica, thanks. >>> as the violence rages in the middle east, president obama is overseas himself on a historic three-day tour of southeast asia. chief white house correspondent chuck todd is traveling with the president. he's in bangkok, thailand, this morning. chuck, what's happening there? >> well, lester, while the president is at a joint press conference with the prime minister here in thailand, and among the questions that the president got was about the violence in gaza. and as you will hear in this answer to one of the questions, he fully defended israel's right to defend themselves. take a listen. >> there's no country on earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders. so we are fully supportive of israel's right to defend itself from missiles landing on people's homes. >> the president went on to say he's been in talks constantly with prime minister netanyahu, president morsi of egypt is also the prime minister of turkey. he said the goal is nothing can be done until the missiles stop coming onto israel's soil. once that stops, t